1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus having a display function and a display control method for the information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as described in, e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-195844, personal computers with an AV data appreciation function have prevailed. This AV data appreciation function allows the user to appreciate program data such as externally provided television (TV) broadcasting, and various kinds of audio/visual (AV) data such as moving image data provided by an external video playback apparatus.
The personal computer of this type has a system configuration which drives and controls the AV data appreciation function under the management and control of the operating system (OS), and a system configuration which independently activates the AV function without activating the OS.
In the system configuration which drives and controls the AV data appreciation function under the OS control, the user must wait until activation of the OS is completed when intending to appreciate AV data. In the system configuration which independently activates the AV function without activating the OS, independent operation of the AV function makes the arrangement of the entire apparatus complex and economically disadvantageous.
In any of the above-described system configurations, when implementing a display control function of performing processes for, e.g., improving the quality of an internally processed image, a display is connected to a display controller which controls this display, via a display control means for performing processes for improving the image quality. However, in this configuration, when the image data generated by the display controller is to be displayed on the display without the mediacy of the display control means for performing processes for improving the image quality, a setting means is required to cause all the functions of the display control means to be invalid. Therefore, this control becomes complex. In these system configurations, the user cannot arbitrarily switch by simple operation between a display environment in which externally input video data is appreciated and a processing work environment accompanying data display including a CPU process.